Archives for 2005

Having a tough time finding work to attract the college-age crowd? You couldalways just have them reimagine your company. Recruiting college-age kids to work in a c-store environment remains a challengefor most of the industry. But Jr. Foods (Jonesboro, AR) has found a unique wayto get students from the University of Arkansas “working” for the

Rutter’s Farm Stores (York, PA) has appointed Brian Matlock vice president of foodservice. A native of Monterey, CA, Matlock is a veteran of the convenience industry. Prior to joining Rutter’s, he served Worsley Cos. (Wilmington, NC)as category manager, fresh foods and proprietary beverages. From 1997 to 2004,Matlock worked in logistics, operations and merchandising for 7-Eleven

When Chevron Corp. (San Ramon, CA) wanted to upgrade the gourmet coffee offerat its ExtraMile Convenience Stores, it went north of the border to tap Canadianroaster Van Houtte to do the brews for a pilot program in the Seattle market.Since May, 43 ExtraMile units in the area have been featuring Van Houtte brandedcoffee stations. The

Every element of the National Convenience Store Advisory Group’s Fall Conference was designed to help retailers turn customers into fanatics about their brands. How do you motivate your stores (and staff) to peak performance? How do you get to the next level of sales and profitability? The answer may lie in developing a closer connection

Open Pantry Food Marts of Wisconsin continues to pour more of itself into the gourmet coffee business. Recently, the chain put a dynamic new face on its stores by focusing on its Willow Creek Coffee offer . While the new store design has been implemented at only seven of the chain

Roughly 610,000 consumers are using Paycheck Secure (www.paychecksecure.com ), BioPay’s biometric payroll check cashing system, at more than 400 retail locations throughout California. To date, Golden State retailers have cashed more than 5.8 million checks, totaling $2.7 billion, through Paycheck Secure since its launch in 2001. An additional 57,000 individuals in Arizona, Utah and Nevada

Retailers selling coffee by the cup might be missing the boat. Even though many convenience retailers are completely capable of selling coffee in to-go carafes or “box” packages, they willingly forfeit those sales to specialty coffee retailers, according to Gary Allanson, president and CEO of International Dispensing Corp. (www.idcdispensing.com). “One of the trends we’ve been

Deploy Solutions has developed a recruiting and talent management solution configured specifically for the convenience store industry called C-Store Advantage. The foundation of the program directs all applicants to a kiosk and/or Web solution when applying for an available position, which helps achieve consistency and compliance in the application process. Then, using assessments for traits

Chevron Corp. (San Ramon, CA) has opened 43 ExtraMile Convenience Stores in the Seattle market. The stores feature a fresh look, healthier snacks and premium coffee, as well as easy access to chilled waters, energy drinks and more appetizing to-go food options. The ExtraMile stores opened throughout the city this summer to develop a potential

In-store health clinics are spreading like the common cold to a rising number of major drugstore and hypermarket chains, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CVS Corp. and Rite Aid Corp., according to a Wall Street Journal report. These clinics offer routine medical services such as strep-throat tests, sports physicals and flu shots, charging $25 to $60

When eyeballing the top line, retailers won’t confuse maps with tobacco or packaged beverages anytime soon. But this segment deserves the respect it might not be getting. Americans continue to amass near large citiesbut they also have begun to poolin many smaller, traditionally rural towns. Take Atlanta and Asheville, NC,for example. Since 2000, the 10-county

Meijer Stores Inc. (Grand Rapids, MI) is the first supercenter chain to adda contactless card payment option at its gas pumps. The chain’s 150 stores thatsell gas will have more than 1,850 fueling positions upgraded with a Gilbarco(www.gilbarco.com) contactless card system. Theintegrated system is currently the only product certified by all three majorcard companies for

Retailers stir up new business by targeting “new movers.” Since opening Smith’s Service Center (Lancaster, PA) in 1979, John Smith had tried advertising in the Yellow Pages and utilizing the Welcome Wagon service to ferret out new customers, but he’d experienced limited, immeasurable results. “There were seven similar businesses to mine in the Welcome Wagon

In an effort to better serve the convenience store market, Giorgio Foods Inc. (www.giorgio foods.com) has introduced a new pizza program that uses premium ingredients to provide pizzeria-quality pizza with minimal preparation required from store employees. Two styles of pizza are available: pre-baked or traditional. Depending on the style and cooking technique, fresh pizza can

Waterway Gas & Wash Co. (Chesterfield, MO) has added Michelle Sausen as its director of merchandising. Before joining Waterway Gas &Wash, Sausen served McLane Grocery Distribution as vice president of sales for the company’s Western and Minnesota divisions. Keith Morrow, chief technology officer for 7-Eleven Inc. (Dallas,TX) and the company itself have been named among

With gas prices reaching obscene levels, sales of premium cigarettes could suffer in the short term. The past 10 months have been a pretty wild ride for Julie Van Alyea.Van Alyea, retail merchandise manager for Redwood Oil Co. (Santa Rosa, CA),has noticed a significant change in her most important instore category: cigarettes.While she has heard

Independent marketers have the ability to buy like the big boys. Karen McGuire regards Doug Van Zee, a retail consultant for CHS Inc.,as a key person in her life. As general manager of two Cenex branded locationsin Mitchell, SD, McGuire doesn’t have time to chase down the best deals forher stores. But since she joined

If the “Monster” Blackout of 2003 taught retailers anything, it’s toprepare for the worst. During that blackout, which affected much of the EastCoast, Ohio and parts of Canada, retailers tried to go on with business as usualoras well as they could in the dark (see Black Knights, p. 16, Sept. ’03).And as Hurricane Katrina has

Completing parts of the hiring process by way of Web, phone or kiosk can sidestep store-level shortcuts. Faithfully performing every part of the hiring process every time youhire someone is just smart business. The problem, however, is that some hiringtasks are unpleasant and most are so repetitive that managers may be temptedto take risky shortcuts.

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